Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce)’s relationship with Theo Silverton (James Cartwright) on Coronation Street has been a turbulent one so far, and things are set to go from bad to worse for Todd in the coming days.

Gareth Pierce told us that Todd is in the ‘eggshells phase’ of the relationship.

‘Todd has really anchored his own moods to what mood he’s going to get from Theo day to day,’ he said. ‘He’s trying constantly to anticipate things that Theo might get riled about to avoid a situation like the kebab scene where it really boiled over.’

Viewers will remember the sickening scenes at the start of September when Theo first became violent towards Todd, belittling him with vile comments and stuffing a kebab into his mouth.

‘That kebab moment was genuinely scary for Todd, and he’s tried to communicate that to Theo,’ Gareth continued.

‘There’s definitely a sense now that Theo is a more physically imposing character than Todd is as well, so he’s definitely scared of him physically but there is still love there somewhere in the relationship and Todd feels like he can maybe anticipate or fix Theo.’

Gareth described how Todd tries to change his behaviour to appease his boyfriend, and how that makes him feel.

‘I think the audience will already be noticing the ways that Todd is briefly relaxed with his friends and his close confidants like Sarah (Tina O’Brien), George (Tony Maudsley) and Billy (Daniel Brocklebank).

‘Then when Theo enters the room, straight away he’s back in that tense, people pleasing, anticipatory kind of headspace. It’s that horrible feeling, like when you go into school and you haven’t done your homework and you have that feeling in the pit of your stomach.’

It’s not long before Theo’s anger explodes again, and it comes as the result of Todd doing Sarah a favour. He’s giving her and Harry a lift, but Harry spills a milkshake on the back seat.

Todd’s scared of what Theo will say, but to his surprise Theo seems fine about it – as long as Sarah is there. It’s when he and Todd are alone that Theo lashes out, berating him for his disrespect of the car.

Todd promises to have the vehicle professionally cleaned, but then when he’s reversing it he scrapes the paintwork.

Gareth said that Todd initially hopes Theo will understand.

‘Todd thinks maybe it will be all right. But then obviously he gets home and realises that it was very much that quintessential narcissistic behaviour of Theo, in that he’s all smiles and presenting, one face to Todd’s friends publicly, but then as soon as that door closes, the mood shifts.’

Theo’s reaction is extreme, as he vents his fury at Todd.

‘It’s going to be another spike in that constant vibrating mood there is in that flat now,’ Gareth reflected.

‘That flat is such a tense space for Todd. It’s his new home, it should be one of the few places where he feels entirely relaxed. That’s a horrible situation to be in anyway and it causes great stress and anxiety.

‘There’s a moment where Todd thinks that maybe he’s been able to get everything sorted and repaired and that it’ll be smooth sailing, but then sadly in that moment of real tension he finds out that it’s not all okay and we have one of those real upsurges in fury that we know you can get from Theo.

‘It’s shocking and it’s very much directed at Todd.’